Written by

Dick Martin

CentralOhio.com

SHELBY — Phoebe Ann Moses was born in 1860 in the western part of Ohio. By the time she was a teenager she had become Annie Oakley, a national sharpshooter and later a regular in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show.

Shelby’s Ashley Stumbo has much in common with the dead-eye from Darke County. Stumbo is only 19 but already has earned a national ranking with her trapshooting accuracy.

In the Lady Division, she is ranked 12th in the country with 322 points in the National All-American team standings. There are only two other Ohioans in the top 100: Medina’s Amy Petkovich is 85th with 50 points and Stow’s Beverly Scott 93rd at 40 points.

“It’s my life,” Stumbo said. “There’s nothing I’d rather be doing.”

Trapshooting is a great way to spend some summer hours. It keeps eyes sharp and reflexes good for the fall hunts. But for some it’s also a challenging, competitive sport. Rod Stumbo, Ashley’s dad, caters to that crowd.

The gunsmith owns Rod’s Custom Stocks in Shelby. Both of his daughters, Ashley and Brittany, 21, have grown up around guns. But Brittany Stumbo works in the cosmetology field and has only shot about 1,000 targets this year. Ashley Stumbo is in the 6,000 range, hence her ranking.

“They grew up watching trap and started shooting just a little here and there,” Rod Stumbo said.

Ashley Stumbo remembers it distinctly.

“I first went to a local gun club,” she said. “My dad said: ‘Want to go shooting?’ and I went and I’ve loved it ever since.”

But competitive shooting began just two years ago, and she’s shown proficiency with it.

“My dad was interested in trapshooting and he’d often take me along to the trap range on Snake Road and let me shoot, too,” Ashley Stumbo said. “Then we went to the big trap shoot at Vandalia, and I was hooked.”

Her first experience was a competition at Middletown Sportsman Club two years ago. She won the handicap and single women’s divisions.

She did well in June at the nation’s largest trapshoot in Elysburg, Pa. Ashley Stumbo won a handicap with a score of 96 out of 100. She won the singles title, too, bringing her total to 24 trophies.

“You can’t miss a single target at a trap shoot. Not a single one,” she said. “So I have to focus on what I’m doing and concentrate totally when the bird goes out.”

At Shelby High School, she was a cheerleader and a member of the Future Farmers of America. She learned meat processing and is attending North Central State College majoring in business.

But her business during the summer is shooting, and her weapon of choice is a 12-gauge Remington over and under 3200. Her goal always is the same: break 100 out of 100. It’s something she’s done more than once.

When the clay bird flies during a shoot, it can veer far left, straight out center, to the right or anywhere in-between. Her toughest clay birds go to the right, and she has shot over those going out in front on occasion.

But not often.

“I’ve always been competitive and I love competition,” Ashley Stumbo said. “These days there are more and more girls in the sport, but we’re still overwhelmed by male shooters. I like to beat the guys, and I usually do.”

Her advice to other young women?

“Don’t get discouraged,” Ashley Stumbo said. “We can do anything the guys can. Just go at it.”

She said any girl who wants to win needs to embrace practice, “because it takes a lot of it.”

Is there any way to make this sport pay off financially?

Maybe so. After a couple of years at NCSC, she’s looking at colleges that have shooting teams. A scholarship is a possibility. Until then, she’s setting her shotgun sights at a real win. The biggest shoot is coming up in Sparta, Ill., from Aug. 2-16. It’s the Grand American World Trapshooting Championships, which features more than 20 events.